February storms affect ambulance response times

The Kansas City Fire Department wasn’t immune to the February snow storms that blanketed Kansas City and created treacherous driving conditions.

“Our response times did dip a little bit in February because of that,” KCFD Deputy Chief Donna Maize said during a recent city Public Safety and Emergency Services Committee meeting.

“I think we all understand the dip in February,” Public Safety Committee Chair John Sharp said. “I’m surprised it wasn’t more than that.”

Maize said depending on the ambulance response district, ambulance response times increased anywhere between one and three percent.

Kansas City is divided into four ambulance response districts (ARD): ARD 1 (Northland); ARD 2 (Central); ARD 3 (East side); and ARD 4 (South side). In each ambulance district, city code requires that ambulances respond to life threatening emergencies in 9 minutes or less 85 percent of the time.

For citywide responses, city code requires that ambulances respond to life threatening emergencies in 9 minutes or less 90 percent of the time. In February, KCFD met that goal 78.47 percent of the time. Response times falling outside the nine minute mark ranged from 9 minutes, 26 seconds to 16 minutes, 42 seconds.

Citywide ambulance response to life-threatening emergencies

City code requires ambulances respond to life-threatening emergencies citywide in 9 minutes or less 90 percent of the time.